IBM and Philips play tag

Posted on 26 Jan 2004 at 17:01

The spread of micro-processing technology into our everyday lives has increased: IBM and Philips have announced a joint agreement to develop systems using RFID (radio frequency identification) tags and smart card technology.

Gillette and Tesco are among the companies that have used radio chips to encode information on customer packaging, for tracking the inventory of goods. Now, Philips is looking to increase the scale of the management systems.

In particular, the two technology giants will be targeting retail and supply chain management systems with the RFID approach, and smart cards will be used for finance and e-government applications.

In the tie up between the two companies, Philips will provide the chip-level technology while IBM will provide the software management services. Philips anticipates the RFID business to grow from the 'early adopters' to reach a mass market of global-scale systems, and this is where IBM comes in.

'We are committed in helping companies boost levels of advanced product tracking and inventory control, as well as developing an end-to-end assessment of the specific costs and benefits in adopting RFID and smart card technology within their business processes,' said Terry Hopkins, VP of IBM Global Services.

Walking the talk, there is going to be an RFID-based system at the Philips Semiconductors division, tracking wafer cases and carton packages at its manufacturing facilities in Taiwan.

See also:

Notebooks to be electronically tagged

Tesco trials ID tags